Early Russian Revolutionaries

Two Main Figures Of the 19th Century Russia

Take Mikhail Bakunin (1814-76) and Sergey Gennadiyevich Nyechayev (1847-82). They were early Anarchists and Nihilists.

If it is true what is reported in Wikipedia especially on the latter guy, then no wonder about the outcome following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and of the USSR under Lenin and Stalin (Stalin was a petty criminal before he joined the communist party.). Mr. Bakunin is reported to be a close long-time mentor of Stalin.

A Murderer

Mr. Nyechayev and others conspired and murdered another revolutionary, because the victim was not complying. Mr. Bakunin did not mind, because he was very close to him especially in Swiss exile.

Purveyors Of Perverse Manifestos

Both Mr. Bakunin and Mr. Nyechayev each wrote and published a Catechism of a Revolutionary in the 1860s. The content of these Catechisms can only be described as perverse.

A revolutionary has no other purpose in life but to be merciless and destroy civilization at all costs and by all (including immoral) means.

A revolutionary must: infiltrate all social formations including the police; must exploit rich and influential people, subordinating to himself; must aggravate the miseries of common people.

Apparently groups like the Black Panther and the Italian Red Brigade terrorists republished this Catechism. What a turn of events.

Did perhaps Saul Alinsky take a cue from this Catechism when he wrote his “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”?

Cowards In Switzerland

When things got a bit too hot, both men fled to Switzerland (like Lenin later) while other, less fortunate revolutionaries were captured and imprisoned.

Mr. Nyechayev even tried to disguise his cowardliness by deliberately spreading false rumors of his arrest in St. Petersburg before heading to Switzerland.

Betrayer Of His Followers

As a student, Mr. Nyechayev had 97 fellow students sign a petition so he would hand this petition over to the police with the intention to radicalize the poor students through prison and exile. What a warped mind.

While in Swiss exile, Mr. Nyechayev mailed leaflets to hundreds of followers in Russia again with the intention to denunciate these activists to authorities so they would be radicalized by their subsequent arrest and punishment.